The really interesting part of this article for me is the list of “mental tactics” Chinese people are using to distance themselves/cope with surveillance. I have heard every single one of those used by Westerners, some of them extremely frequently. Westerners often seem to believe that they are somehow immune to the type of mass surveillance you see in authoritarian states like China, but this suggests to me that we are actually extremely susceptible to it ourselves. The mindset already exists and we are already making those mental exceptions for civil liberties infringements in the name of “security” (government surveillance) or convenience (company surveillance). The only difference is our governments have not yet taken surveillance to the same extremes or, if they have, are less transparent about how they’re doing it, so there is still a misguided belief that the same thing cannot happen where we live.
They go together though. Like what’s scary about the surveillance is how much censorship there is. Because it would be dead easy to arrest someone for thought crime if you are constantly surveiling them.
almost every participant brought up the “lack of moral quality” of their fellow citizens, whom they said behaved like children with little moral sense.
In the context of this shame-inducing narrative, surveillance is framed as a welcome solution to enforce the rules by punishing violators and getting people to behave better. According to the participants, moral shortcomings are responsible for the “century of humiliations” that China has experienced since the Opium Wars and the Japanese invasions; according to this discourse, “civilizing” the population will enable China to gain the international recognition it so ardently desires.
What a fucking victim blaming asshole you have to be to suggest we need dragnet surveillance everywhere because there was an epidemic of opium addiction
The surveillance is somewhat less pervasive where I live, but the methods for selling people on the idea that it's acceptable, inevitable, and for our own good are much the same the world over.
Remember that you need an id to get a phone number in most countries. And how hot big IT is for your phone number. Aside from UKUSA and NSA programs doing way more.
The coping tactics are almost the same here, if you’re not a privacy nut.
Not to say it’s as bad as in China, especially here it’s for money (though not for me) and against terrorism. But the definition of terrorism can quickly change with someone like trump in power.
Requiring an ID is security theater anyway. If law enforcement wants to know who got a number they can simply look at what phone it’s used in, or what card you paid with etc.
knowing a phone model is not the same as seeing and ID card with all the Details, that makes a huge difference for the individual’s privacy…
most ISP operators I have seen don’t give a damn about your privacy, if you’re their friend, just ask… give them a phone number and they’ll give you all the details ( Face, Home Address… Etc )… In other countries like Iraq, you can buy that information for a very very low price…
removing the ID card from the equation provides huge privacy benefits for people from these sick fucks… If you’re worried about being found by the authorities… Avoid SIM cards alltogether
its more complicated than that. IMEI and triangulation complicates this unless you have a stolen/spoofed phone and some opsec to deal with triangulation. and then theres the fact most points of sale have security cameras.
Here an ID is required by law, but you can still buy “gray” simcards in various places. Although not as reliable as if it were a legal one - it can get blocked by the provider, but I don’t know exactly how long they usually last.
Where I live, I consider nothing I do on my phone private at all, and I have to act accordingly. I would be in breach of Chinese law were I to do the same in China.
What does “pro-freedom” even mean? He’s clearly not pro choice for example. Most of his freedoms seem to be for corporations, the citizens only have an illusion of freedom at best.
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